Draw the Shape of a Head....???

This week I am teaching my second graders how to overlap people in a drawing.   I asked them first to draw the shape of a head.  After that they cut out the shape and used it as a template to repeat and overlap the shape.

Most of the shapes are clearly head shapes.  Not all of them are.

I didn't want to stop the one girl from continuing on the head shape she had in mind.  My curiosity was piqued to see what she was going to do.

So, here are the results.  One person's work is shown overlapping the expected heads and then the other has the  unique heads.

Ta da!!!!!!!  I love seeing how people's brains work.

Beads for Barter....Second Grade

I've written about this lesson before.  Beads for Barter   While my second graders are studying Mali and bartering, they make paper beads that they later use for barter.  They did their trading today.  You can hear music from Mali in the background, btw.

After they barter for beads, they string them.  Some kids save them for Mother's Day and other just enjoy wearing them.   They LOOOOOOOOOVE this lesson.

2nd Grade Weaving

My second graders are studying Mali now.    To tie in, I taught a weaving lesson in which we saw Mali fabric and then did a paper weaving.

Valentine Lesson from Mrs. Picasso

I love how Google leads me to unexpected places.  I Googled "showcase clay owl elementary" and I got this:

This is from one of "Mrs. Picasso's" posts from last year this time.  Love it!

Fall Landscapes - Grade 2

My second graders studied multiple works by Grant Wood.  They learned the terms "background," "foreground," "middleground," and "overlapping."  They also attempted to depict depth in a painting.

I hope these pieces made it home unfolded...uncrumpled...and unmarred.  I would hang any one of these in my home.

Crack Me Up

Kid's art cracks me up.  Not in a bad way.  Just in a "isn't that too dog goned cute/funny" kind of way.













In this lesson, the second graders talked about Grant Wood's painting, American Gothic.
They observed many details in the painting that gave clues as to who these people were.  Then we looked at how the artist made some things look closer to us than other things. 

The kids then tried to draw pictures of themselves in front of their friends.

The objective was mostly achieved; I see some tentative tries at overlapping.

But these kids sure have some entertaining looking friends for seven year olds.

Holiday Busy-ness

Here's what I'm doing these days:

More babuska note cards and Christmas cards for sending and for Etsy.

Here's what "my" kids are doing:

Fifth graders - paintings of before and after natural disasters
My second graders painted patterns on paper and used them for animal collages.
My third graders are studying the architecture of ancient Greece. They planned contemporary buildings using Greek elements and then created them out of cut paper.




There are lots of clay lessons happening in the art room, as well as painting.

In Snippyville there's lots of drawing, snipping, selling, and planning. Busy, busy, busy.